


One Day

by mrpicard



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: The Next Generation (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Foreshadowing, Late Night Conversations, Love, M/M, Pining, Secret Crush, Sharing a Bed, Starship Enterprise (Star Trek)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:00:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23530486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrpicard/pseuds/mrpicard
Summary: Picard and Data have a "special arrangement".
Relationships: Data/Jean-Luc Picard
Comments: 10
Kudos: 43





	One Day

**Author's Note:**

> This ficlet is set between Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek: Nemesis.

_**U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-E** _

_**Captain's Quarters** _

  
Picard looked down at the sleeping - and also quite naked - android in his bed. Data had activated his dream program, as he always did a little while after one of their 'lovemaking sessions'. At first Picard had been a little intimidated by it, but since it had meant that Data stayed with him all night, he had quickly come to appreciate it.

Among other things, it gave him the chance to really look at Data.

Which was incredibly shallow and perhaps even a little strange, but Picard was way past caring - he wanted to look at the flawlessly beautiful android for as long as he could, as often as he could, as intensely as he could.

' _Why did he agree to this rather bizarre arrangement between us? Does he know that things have gone way beyond 'lovemaking sessions' for me? If he knows, how does he feel about it? **Does** he even feel without his emotion chip?_'

He slowly reached out his hand and put it on Data's bare chest - he felt a sudden need to touch him, to physically feel the android's presence in both his bed and his life.

_'I need him. Because I love him.'_

There it was.

That thought again.

The one he did not dare allow himself to think.

His hand tensed on Data's chest - and the android opened his eyes, sat up and looked directly at Picard, who quickly pulled his hand back. "Jean-Luc? Is everything alright?"

"Yes," Picard replied hastily. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

"I have programmed myself to respond to your touch. This overrides even my dream program." 

_'He's not going to make this easy for me, is he.'_

"That... that was very thoughtful."

Data's intense gaze became even more focused. "Are you certain that everything is alright? Your facial expression indicates that you are troubled by something."

"No, Data. Everything's fine, really."

"Do you wish for me to return to my quarters?"

"What? No, of course not."

Data frowned, as he always did when he was puzzled by a response that didn't quite match his estimated calculations.

Picard gently put his hand on the android's shoulder. "I mean it. Please, stay."

Data looked at the hand and then back at Picard. "Very well, sir."

Picard cringed. "Data, please, I told you - don't call me sir. Not when we're in bed together."

"I am sorry, Jean-Luc. It seems that even _my_ programming is not immune to certain habits." 

"Habits are a very human characteristic," Picard remarked and slowly pulled his hand back. 

"Indeed." Data tilted his head. "Curious."

"Maybe our sessions are having an effect on you that you did not foresee," Picard suggested, happy to draw the conversation towards a less dangerous topic. "You have never been exposed to prolonged human intimacy before. There are a lot of new inputs - it stands to reason that your programming responds in new ways."

"Perhaps." Data looked away and then back at Picard. "Am I to understand that you wish to continue our arrangement?"

_'So much for a less dangerous topic.'_

"Why do you ask?"

"You seemed somewhat apprehensive before and after our recent lovemaking sessions. Do they not satisfy you anymore?"

_'Only **he** could ask this.'_

"Data, our sessions are not here to satisfy me. They're here to enrich us both."

"Then they have not been enriching you sufficiently," Data concluded.

Picard ran his hand over his bald head in exasperation.

_'I'm **not** good at this.'_

"No, Data. You're drawing the wrong conclusions from a wrong premise. If I seem apprehensive it's because I'm... well... wondering where all this is going to lead us."

_'Nicely put, Jean-Luc, nicely put. Avoiding your feelings, as always.'_

"Where do you wish for it to lead us?"

_'Merde.'_

"I... I don't know, Data. All I can say is that I have been enjoying our sessions very much."

"Then why are you apprehensive about where they might lead us? I do not understand."

_'Of course you don't. Thankfully not.'_

"I'm afraid this is something that we will have to discuss some other time." Picard nodded in the direction of the chronometer on the bedside table. "It's rather late."

"As you wish. I shall store this for further analysis at a later date."

_'Yes. Later. **MUCH** later.'_

The android lay back down on the bed. "I will re-initiate my dream program now. Good night, Jean-Luc."

"Good night, Data."

The android closed his eyes and, within seconds, returned to his seemingly lifeless state.

Picard breathed a small sigh of relief.

_'He almost had me.'_

He knew that, one day, he would have to tell Data how he felt - and that day seemed to be approaching more and more rapidly. But how? When? Was there ever a perfect time and place for a confession like this? And - what would the android's response be? That Picard was nothing more to him than another variable in his programming? Or just a human tool to study the mechanics of sex? 

No, that was not what Picard was afraid of.

He was afraid of "I love you, too" - and yet he knew that he already longed to hear those words from Data, just as he already longed to be with Data on a more frequent and permanent basis than just 'lovemaking sessions'. 

_'What if, for some reason, I never manage to tell him?'_

The sudden thought seemed terrifying and downright unbearable, but Picard knew it wasn't an unreasonable consideration. Space could be an unforgiving and dangerous place, and he had almost lost Data on several occasions already.

What if he lost him permanently, without ever having told him how he felt?

_'It would break me.'_

Picard looked at Data once more and this time he resisted the urge to touch the android again - he would not be able to get through another conversation like the one they had just had.

"Computer, turn off the lights."

Darkness enveloped the bed and the rest of Picard's quarters, leaving the stars outside the windows as the only source of light.


End file.
